A smattering of visitors in surgical masks stroll the observation deck at Harbour City, Hong Kong, as the novel coronavirus continues to cast a cloud of unease over the city. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)
Former World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun has called on every country to craft “timely, aggressive and decisive” measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic despite their different political, cultural and economic backgrounds.
In a phone interview with China Daily, the veteran public-health expert urged world leaders not to be arrogant when faced with unknown diseases, and said it’s important to learn from China’s experience in implementing early detection, tracing of contacts, isolation and treatment of patients.
“Some people criticize China for taking very aggressive measures to contain the outbreak. But, when you look at the situation now, many countries are enforcing similar or the same measures,” she said.
In her view, the pandemic is like a mirror, reflecting each nation’s response when caught in an unexpected, large-scale crisis. People around the world all look to their political leaders for protection, she said.
Chan, former director of health of Hong Kong before she took office as director-general of the WHO in 2007, cited the case of Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province and coronavirus ground zero, where she said officials could have done better in the early stages by taking the advice of doctors. But she praised the “decisive measures” taken by the central government in tackling the problems, as well as the solidarity shown by the whole nation.
The steps taken included the timely lockdown of Wuhan; building temporary hospitals; deploying thousands of medical workers from across the country to Hubei; and allocating billions of yuan in funds and medical resources.
Science-based fight
Chan said China’s political system allows it to take quick actions to control the situation with a coordinated approach, stressing that one must understand that each country has its own political system and culture. They need to adopt different measures, and at different pace, to suit local circumstances.
It’s vital for any place to ensure by all means that hospital capacity is not overwhelmed, Chan added.
She commended the Hong Kong government for implementing science-based measures to deal with the pandemic.
Hong Kong is too small to afford the luxury of building makeshift hospitals as the Chinese mainland did, so the city has to adopt various measures to contain the diseases, she said. These included border control, proactive virus tests, thorough contact tracing, strict quarantines, and timely treatment.
By the end of March, the SAR had conducted some 90,000 coronavirus tests, or 12,000 tests per million people. Hong Kong has the highest test rate in Asia, and among the top globally, according to the city’s health authorities.
She also spoke highly of South Korea and Singapore in controlling the outbreak. South Korea is doing as much testing as possible to avoid missing out any patient, Chan said. Since late February, South Korea, with a population of about 50 million, has done more than 400,000 COVID-19 tests — one of the highest in the world. The country has also carried out proactive contact-tracing and epidemiological investigation, she noted.
Chan believes that, for effective disease control, government officials need accurate personal information, such as travel and contact histories, for contact tracing, rather than probing into personal lives.
Hence, it’s important for each administration to spend time explaining its policies, especially to young people, she said, adding that every citizen should also do his or her part well by following government guidelines, such as social distancing.
Chan said Singapore is doing well in communicating with its people openly and transparently. Since early January, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has made public speeches on COVID-19 several times, she noted.
“When you explain to people and they understand the logic, they’ll cooperate with the government,” Chan stressed. “But, when you try to play down the situation, as we’ve seen in some places, when the people in the country do not trust their leaders, it’s very difficult for them to contain the disease.”
